I'll Follow You (Sasuke Oneshot)
by ChasingXxMemories
Summary: Sasuke and OC oneshot based around Orochimaru's Lair. Age set at 18-19


It's here. I glance around, checking to see if the coast is clear. Not a soul to be seen. I start to dig into the ground with my bare hands. The soil is soft, as if it had just been shifted recently. I knew I was in the right place.

"Naruto, got it." I pressed the button to the headset I wore and whispered the words through the line. I got no response, though I knew very well he heard me. Some miles away, he was probably running towards me with all his strength.

"_Hold her down, Kabuto." I screamed, kicking as hard as I could, doing anything to keep the man's hands off me. I didn't want to feel that sickening pain that I knew so well. _

"_Please, just let me go!" The needles slid into my skin as my hands were bound to the metal table I lay on. "Please, Orochimaru, stop this!" I writhed in agony as the poison flowed through my bloodstream. _

"_She has such an incredible ability to heal. Unfortunately, I cannot inhabit her body. I can only learn from it. Kabuto, take another blood sample. The poison has spread enough."_

"Great, Kaya, good work!" Naruto came bounding through the underbrush so loudly that it jolted me from my memories. I stood to greet him, the dirt covering my hands completely.

Underneath us was a small entrance into a secret hallway of one of Orochimaru's lairs.

"Ladies first," Naruto grabbed my arm and dropped me down the hole onto the pathway underneath. He jumped in after me.

It was only the two of us now, after everything that has happened. The year has been long and hard since I was first rescued by my Leaf Village friends from Orochimaru's grasp near Tenchi Bridge.

We've lost many battles in an attempt to get just where we are now. My Uncle Kakashi and Sakura are in the hospital in critical condition. We don't even know if they'll make it. Sai we lost last, on the open road through the Sound village to the new Sound Five.

"Naruto, stay close to me, ok?" I breathe next to his ear in case our words and movements reverberated in the cavelike hallways.

He gave me the O.K. symbol and silently crept forward, me close behind.

"_Why did you follow me, Kaya?" I stared into Sasuke's eyes as he sat beside me in the experimenting room. I couldn't speak because a tube was lodged down my windpipe. My eyes pleaded with him, though. I begged him to untie me, to let me go. To follow me if I ever escaped. _

"_You're so stupid. I wanted this. You think you could have saved me when all I needed was to be saved from you?" He slammed his fists against the metal table, so close to me. I reached out and grabbed his hand with my bound one. I pressed my fingers into his palm. He halted and really looked at me. I drew out letters into his hand. ~Friend~_

_He tossed my hand violently back against my side and stalked out of the room. "I have no friends, only enemies."_

We saw a flicker of candlelight to our right and ran towards it. Naruto almost lost his control but I grabbed his collar and pulled him back close to me.

"We'll find him, just be patient!" I whispered reassuringly.

The light led us to a doorway. The room on the other side was empty, no trace of anyone living there. We kept going.

Sounds echoed nearby us. Mice scurried away from our feet. Water dripped from the ceiling to the floor. But no sounds of human life.

Just down the hall, a shadow passed into another doorway. I ran forward but Naruto's arm shot out in front of me. A trick of light. It was only our own shadows.

"_She's ready. Bring her out to the training grounds." Orochimaru commanded Kabuto as I sucked in a mighty breath of my own instead of those confounded tubes. My throat was raw and aching. I coughed and blood spewed out._

"_Maybe she should rest first before we put her body through more stress. You could kill her." Kabuto offered but his master only laughed._

"_We have what we need if she does die. Bring her out, Kabuto." Orochimaru repeated._

_The grey haired man lifted me from the table and stood me on my feet. Immediately, I fell to the floor. I couldn't feel anything from my hips down. I prayed that it was only numb and not permanently paralysed._

_I was dragged through the room and out the door into the hallway. Kabuto had to lift me over his shoulder in order to get me out into the training arena several corridors down._

_Sasuke was waiting at the other end of the arena. _

"_Now, fight." Orochimaru ordered in my ear, his snake tongue running across my cheek like sandpaper. I felt my body move forward without my commanding it to do so. _

"_I'm not fighting her." Sasuke stated without any real interest. He sat on a bench, scrawling into a notebook that was perched on his knees. _

"_If you want to become stronger to beat your brother, you will fight her." Orochimaru snarled before closing the only door out of the arena. A bolt clicked on the other side. _

_Before I could stop myself, I attacked the boy I cared so dearly for. My hands clasped at his throat, my nails digging deep into his skin. He started in surprise, not expecting this of me. He shoved me away enough to break my vice grip. His glare burned in my soul but my mind and body were two separate beings. _

"Kaya, where do we go from here?" I blinked back the shadows in the backs of my eyes and pointed to the left, away from the door to that same arena. Naruto nodded and began to run again. The soft sound of his shoes tapping across the ground was enough to keep me from being drawn back into my past.

I skidded around and corner and ran into Naruto's back with a hard thump. His breathing was heavy and unnatural for him. I peeked around his shoulder to see what was the matter. Had we found him?

Sasuke was hanging from the ceiling by a rope. Blood dripped from his fingertips onto the stone floor. Tip, tip, tip. I closed my eyes, focused on the chakra surrounding us in a bubble. I could feel Naruto relax so I opened my eyes. I dispersed the genjutsu.

"They're on to us now, so we have to hurry." I shake away the fuzzy feeling in my mind. Orochimaru was still trying to push into my brain. I had to get to him fast before it got too bad.

"_Fight me!" I scream at the top of my lungs and take a defensive stance. He runs at me as quick as my eye could follow him. He was on top of me before I could throw my arms out to stop him. My already weak legs collapsed underneath me. I hadn't even noticed that I was standing again, more so walking and running._

"_I will not fight you, Kaya! Snap out of it!" I snarled and bucked up and down to try and force him off me. I didn't want to fight, can't he see that? This isn't me!_

"_Sasuke, if you don't kill me now, I will kill you!" I gasped as the words spewed from my lips like venom. No! I would never kill him!_

"_So be it. I won't kill you. There's no point." He jumped back onto his feet and began to walk away. I could feel the urge to run at him in another attack, but somehow I held myself back._

"_Run, Sasuke!" I shout with my own voice before the force of my will collapsed on me, knocking my mind senseless. I could still feel myself moving, doing something but I didn't know what. When I woke, I could see him. I could see the blood everywhere. He lay senseless on the ground, gouge marks across his neck and chest._

_I screamed._

"Naruto, wait!" I say a little too loudly. He swivels around, ready to fight whatever was nearby. "Trip wires." I creep next to him and point at the almost invisible strings just in front of Naruto's feet. The visions were getting stronger, but I could still concentrate on the traps laid out by Kabuto throughout the lair for now. I couldn't say for how much longer luck would be on our side.

"Whoa, that was a close one. You sure you know what you're doing, Kaya?" Naruto glanced around at the bomb scrolls placed on the stones in the wall. I disabled the strings and grabbed Naruto's hand, tugging him after me as fast as possible. We turned to the next corridor just as the bombs went off. A few pebbles rained on top of our heads from the ceiling.

"Yeah, I know what I'm doing." I assure him.

_I killed Sasuke! I ran from the rroom, the door now unlocked and open wide. Orochimaru passed by me, snickering evilly. I just hide away in my room, my mind not comprehending the trick of illusions. Of course Orochimaru wouldn't have Sasuke destroyed. He was the treasure, the perfect body. I heard so myself when they thought I was out cold. They wanted Sasuke's body, not himself as he was at that moment._

_When I realized the trickery played on my mind, I snuck back to where Kabuto and Orochimaru hovered close together by firelight. They couldn't see me and I couldn't see them—but I could hear them._

"_She's strong, that's a definite. If you could just perfect the DNA fuse, you could have that strength and his invincible body and mind together." Kabuto tapped on his notebook with his chalk pencil, indicating something scientific to his master I guessed. _

"_It's only a matter of time, Kabuto, I can feel it." The two men got up to walk out of the room. I held my breath and ran out of sight before they caught me. I had to tell Sasuke what they were planning!_

"Are we getting close?" Naruto growled to me in frustration as we rounded yet another dead end corridor. He wiped the nervous sweat from his brow and took a quick breather before we started off again.

"We are. I can feel it. He's trying hard to take over my mind, but I know better." I was out of breath from the effort to stay in control, but I wasn't going to let that on to Naruto. He would insist that I should stay back and rest while he went forward on his own. If he did that, he would surely die.

"Good, this place is giving me the creeps." Naruto shivered as a spider crawled down onto his shoulder. He brushed it away before it could get into his jumpsuit. I took no notice of it at first, then, too late, it came to me.

"Shit, move, Naruto!" I shove him as far away as my strength would take him. He tumbled down the hall and into the other side of the wall a hundred feet away. I started to run, but my legs couldn't carry me away from the huge blast. It hit me in the back with such force that the wind was knocked out of me and my ears began to ring.

The blast was only momentary, but enough to knock a hole through the wall and out into the open forest above us. My clothes were burned and charred at the back. When the dust cleared, we saw just how much damage the small explosive spider, courtesy of Deidara in the Akatsuki, caused.

"Damn…" Naruto whistled in awe. I didn't have time for amazement. That was too close for comfort. I was running out of time to stay in control.

"_Sasuke, you have to believe me! They're going to turn you into a puppet for Orochimaru to crawl inside when his other body is too harmed to use! Please, trust me." I beg my friend, my hands clasped tight onto his shoulders, my eyes boring straight into his. _

"_Kaya, I don't care. They can't defeat me. Why did you use this chance you could be escaping to come tell me nonsense?" I looked away, my heart leaden with worry that Sasuke was taking the situation too lightly. _

"_I can't leave without you." He brushed away my hands and turned to face away from me. I had snuck into his room in the middle of the night while I was free from the experimenting table. He was right, I knew I should have run away while I had the chance, but I had to convince him to come with me. _

"_Go home, Kaya. You're just torturing yourself here." He grumbled in irritation before waving me away and covering his eyes from the crack of light that was cascading out of the hallway. _

It seemed like the whole lair was being blown to pieces everywhere we stepped. We managed to dodge each blast and what's more is the explosions were taking away the walls that separated us from our goal.

I spotted something as the rubble cleared and took off after it. Naruto followed close behind.

Boulders fell in front of us but I only knocked them from the path with my forearms. Gashes formed and blood began to drip but I took no notice of it.

"SASUKE!" Naruto shouted with all his might. I could hear the determination in his voice. I felt that inside of me too.

He appeared out of nowhere, his fists slamming into my stomach before I could react. Naruto shouted out again but I couldn't hear through the crippling pain that rippled in my whole body. Hands were pulling me up, moving me away just as white flashes appeared. I heard the sound of birds faintly as I came to once more.

The figure who'd attacked me fell to the floor, his silver hair flowing freely from its tie. His body was deathly still.

Behind him stood Sasuke. He gave an eerie smile, his Chidori fading from his arm slowly.

"Welcome back, Kaya." Naruto stepped forward in front of me in a protective stance. "You dope, I'm not going to hurt her. I never did before, did I?" He looked to me for an answer. I shook my head numbly. "See?" Sasuke reached around Naruto without so much as a glance at the blond and took my arm roughly. He pulled me to him and we disappeared from sight of my friend. I was taken through the ruined corridors at lightning speed, all the way back to the darkest deepest depth—just where we'd been headed.

"You ready?" I knew he could see the complete confusion written across my face but he only laughed and shoved me forward. I stumbled on my feet and almost fell flat on my face. I caught myself in time. In front of me, Orochimaru was pinned to his 'throne' by his own snake swards. He was still alive and at this point laughing at the two of us.

"You think you can escape so easily? You both are trapped in my devices. I will always win." Sasuke sneered at the pale slick reptile man and one of the swords began to glow with the Chidori.

"Well, you gonna take your shot?" Sasuke ushered me forward to the defenceless evil bastard. I finally understood. Sasuke could have killed him without me ever knowing, but he wanted me to have a taste of revenge too.

I focussed on all the pain and all the torture of my memories, of everything he put me through in the past, and I attacked.

The aftermath was a horrible vision. If it was anyone else, I would have gotten sick. The only thing I was sick with was the pleasure of destroying the creature that destroyed me and my life.

Just as Sasuke and I turned to walk out of the room, we heard another loud explosion and the walls around us crumbled down. The ceiling tumbled down with it. We both ducked under a table until the dirt and rubble settled. We dug our way out back to the top to see Naruto and an unharmed Sai escaping from the dirt near us as well.

"Kaya!" Naruto tripped over the dirt to get to me. He stopped short when he saw Sasuke beside me. "You said you wouldn't hurt her!"

"And I did no such thing. I freed her, that's all." Naruto look put off by this. I'm sure he didn't know what to believe.

"I'm ok, Naruto. Promise." I give him the O.K. symbol and he finally relaxes.

"So then where's that bastard Orochimaru?" The blond looked around for any sign of the snakes. I could just barely see the swords buried further away from us. Sasuke and I glanced at each other, the secret of the real wrath hidden between us.

"He's gone. He's finally gone." I could feel the words lift something inside of me that I hadn't felt since Sasuke, and consequently I, left almost four years ago.

"So… we can finally go home?" Naruto didn't look to me, he was gazing at his rival, his best friend, his brother.

"Yes. You can go home. I have one more thing I need to finish before I can face my old life." Sasuke jumped from the wreckage onto the solid ground once more and dusted himself off. We all looked to one another.

"Just like that?" The smile on the mysterious Sasuke's face said it all.

"Just like that." I was glad to see the resignation in Naruto's face. He at least did what he promised to do so long ago. He got the Uchiha back. If Naruto couldn't physically bring his friend back himself, he would at least have Sasuke's word that he would be coming back willingly.

We were saying our temporary goodbyes to Sasuke and when he go to me, I turned to Naruto and Sai. "We'll be back soon, I promise. I will make sure he doesn't change his mind." I wink.

"Where I'm going isn't a place for you, Kaya." Sasuke gazed softly down at me but I waved him away.

"Any place you are is a place for me. Haven't you learned that?" He was quiet for a moment until I gently pulled him down to me and kissed him.

"_Go home, Kaya. You're just torturing yourself here." Sasuke waved me away from his room, blocking his face from the light with his arms._

"_You are my home. If I have to torture myself to be with you, so be it. I love you. I would have left long ago if not for that simple fact." I turned to leave the man to his dungeon of a room but he was suddenly standing in front of me. His onyx eyes glared down at me, as if he hated the sight of me._

"_You don't love me. How could you?" He had me trapped inside of his room, awaiting his answer._

"_Because I was there when your brother did what he did. I saw it all. I'd come to see you that day. You were my love even then, and all I ever wanted to do after that was help you destroy him." Suddenly his lips were on mine, hot and fierce. He shoved me over against the wall beside us and pinned me there. I could feel how much he longed for me and he knew just how much I longed for him._

_He broke away the kiss enough to talk again. "You can't stay here. I can't keep watching them destroy you like they do. The next chance you get, you have to escape. Get help. And when you can, come back here. I'll be ready." I nod then pull him back to me right away for another heat filled kiss._

"So, you guys had this all planned? Why didn't you tell me Sasuke was planning on coming back?!" Naruto griped, almost pouting now with overexertion over nothing. He didn't even get to fight anyone.

"Then you wouldn't have come along, and I needed your help too!" I smile at the blond and his feelings are pacified.

"This doesn't change the fact that I'm still going with you, Sasuke." I stand closer to the man, grabbing his arm and squeezing tight.

"I know, Kaya. And I know there's no stopping you." We were at an agreement. We said our farewells once more to the two others and went on our way.

"So, any real plans on how to locate your brother?" I entwine my fingers through Sasuke's as we walk away into the thick-brushed woods.

"I'm just gonna go with it."

"We're not actually going back to Konoha, are we?" I ventured, a little smile playing at the edges of my lips.

"Not for a long time." He squeezed my hand before letting go and jumping into the branches. I followed after him. Wherever he was going, I was heading too.


End file.
